Final Leaders Debate in New Zealand General Election - Big Yawn, Kiwis Get An Extra Hour's Shut-eye

The final leaders debate turned out to be a bit of a yawn. The video is here on Television New Zealand's website.

Both Labour's Helen Clark and National's John Key sought to ride on the coat tails of Barack Obama's ascendancy to the US Presidency.

But to paraphrase the late US Senator Lloyd Bentsen: "I know Barack Obama, and Ms Clark, Mr Key, you're no Barack Obama".

Neither has the vision, the intellect, or the power to draw in a new generation of citizens and from across broad socio-economic groups by challenging them to take their society in a new direction.

Instead, Key and Clark trolled through a range of policy issues, bogging down in the minutae, with little attempt to provide a broader vision that explained to voters how and where they intend to lead the country. At one stage the debate degenerated to the level of what misdemeanor transgressions of the law they may have committed in their youth.

By the way, note to Mr Key: It's not Barrack Obama, but Baaaa-rak Obama! Probably a good thing to get right before you arrive at the front door of the White House.

And a note to the journalist questioner, Tracy Watkins, purportedly the Dominion Post's political editor, who'd been speaking to Joe the taxi driver on her way to the debate and who based a health & education question on her cab conversation with Joe: that's lazy journalism. It is such a hackneyed, lazy way of conducting "research". We thought the lead-in "I was talking to a taxi driver..." was a phrase that had died a merciful death decades ago in New Zealand. Appears not, sadly.

For better quality journalism, next time talk to a Chicago cab driver for better questions - they constitute a United Nations of cabbies and most of them listen to public radio which means they are well-informed about world affairs. Plus, for the price of the fare, you get a high speed chase through the Loop, something that debate viewers would've paid gold for. Anything to provide a bit of an adrenalin rush.

TV3 Leaders Debate in New Zealand General Election

The Christchurch Press is calling the Labour and National Party leaders debate on TV3 on 3 November "an honourable draw" here.

TV3's Campbell Live video archive here provides the debate in its entirety - in parts - with a post-debate panel discussion.

Labour leader Helen Clark said afterwards she thought she'd rattled National leader John Key. For his part, Key said the debate was scrappy at times, but both leaders had a fair hearing and he wouldn't declare a winner.

Moderator John Campbell challenged both leaders to be specific in terms of policies that would turn around long run economic decline and bolster future economic development. Both leaders were confronted with their "fatalism", for focusing solely on "ambulances at the bottom of the cliff" such as emergency unemployment benefits as the global financial crisis bites.

As Campbell pointed out, both leaders tried to claim credit for the least popular piece of legislation in recent times, the Anti-Smacking Act which bars parents from smacking their children other than "inconsequential" smacking.

Campbell suggested to Clark that she is coming near to the end of her natural life as a prime minister but saved some heat for Key asserting his National front bench leadership was "as fresh as a seven-day-old snapper".

Clark struck her strongest blows against Key when she highlighted National's lack of connection to & support of the Pasifika community in South Auckland. Labour is hoping to turn out the Pacific Island vote in South Auckland on election day, a bedrock of Labour support when it turns out to vote.

Key landed his biggest blow when he talked of Labour's nanny state that was "storming through your front door" with new environmental regulations on lightbulbs and shower heads. (He should probably take a trip to Schwarzenegger California to get a good idea of his "nanny state" environmental regulation that is not just Democratic, but Republican. The reality is green is crossing ideological lines.)

On New Zealand - US relations, both leaders said they would work with either US presidential candidate, both who are "very talented". Clark commented on Obama being "the most gifted and charismatic" politician and Key noting "McCain is a good friend of New Zealand" but that Obama's election would truly be historic.